The Council
Magi and covenfolk discuss the covenant's affairs. Council of Magi The council of magi consists of all gifted members of the covenant. The current Princeps is Marcus, voted into office at the foundation of the covenant. There are no other official positions within the Covenant. As a matter of course, and hopefully as a guide for future Princeps, Marcus always votes last and in general declines to vote unless either: *His vote would make it unanimous, in which case he votes so in order to show unity. *His vote would be decisive, in which case he must vote his conscience. In other words if it a split vote, but his vote will not change the outcome, he, as Chairman/Princeps abstains. As the gifted membership of the covenant numbers just six magi at this time, it requires only the consent of four magi to pass both Simple and Greater Votes. The Charter of the Covenant of NAME The founders created the following charter by which the covenant is governed, based upon a document originally prepared with the aid of Mnemosyne's Guernicus parens, and formally witnessed by a Mercere notary. Council Business Spring Equinox Council of 1221 *Ambrosius Requests 1 pawn Rego vis for use in Covenant item, Equus Quietis ::Ayes; Mnemosyne, Longinus, Ambrosius, Bedo. ":Nays; ::::Approved/denied Summer Solstice Council of 1221 * Mnemosyne suggests Ambrosius season creating the Equus Quietis should be counted as his season of service. ::Ayes; Mnemosyne, Ambrosius, Longinus, Bedo. ::Nays; ::::Approved/denied *Longinus Requests his season teaching Bartleby Magic Theory be counted as a season of service. ::Ayes; Longinus, Ambrosius, Mnemosyne, Bedo. ::Nays; ::::Approved/denied *Marcus proposes as a simple order of business that the Covenant should prioritize the acquisition or authorship of either a good Magic Theory Summa or a reasonable collection of Magic Theory tractatii, or both. No vote is required. ::::Automatically Approved/denied *Mnemosyne seeks agreement that writing a Magic Theory tractatus for the Library will be counted as her season of service (to be written in Autumn). :My sincere apologies on this one - just had a discussion with Corbon over MSN where he made a comment which made me realise that I had read the rules incorrectly for writing books. Mnemosyne can't actually write the Intellego Tractatus. I have replaced it with a Magic Theory one, which Corbon agreed was OK with him. I removed everyone else's votes and unapproved this again. Sorry to be such a moron. --Perikles 11:39, 4 March 2007 (UTC) ::Ayes; Mnemosyne, Longinus, Marcus violates his usual voting practice since he proposed the idea of Magic Theory Tractatcus, Bedo ::Nays; ::::Approved/denied Mnemosyne notes that so far, only three of the magi have declared and gained approval for this year's season of service to the Covenant, with only Autumn yet to come. She suggests that the magi who have not yet gained Council approval may want to do so. No vote required. Autumn Equinox Council of 1221 *Mnemosyne suggests the permanent appointment of a Turb Captain to handle the military day to day matters of the grogs and to act as the main point of contact between the magi and the grogs. :: Side note, not directly related to the vote: She suggests that if this motion is passed there seem to be three main candidates for the role; Geoffrey (presuming Corbon is willing for his companion to have such a full time job, or Diarmait or Geraldous. She also notes that the all of the grogs seem to speak a mishmash of English, Welsh, Irish and French, but providing the magi can communicate with the Turb Captain, this is probably something for him to sort out. ::Ayes; Mnemosyne, Longinus, Ambrosius, Bedo, Phaedrus ::Nays; ::::Approved/denied Providing Marcus acts as usual, etc... *Mnemosyne proposes that Geoffrey is appointed as Turb Captain. ::Side note: I spoke to Corbon and he seemed to be OK with his companion doing this. If not, consider this scratched and null and I'll propose a different name. I think if he wants it for his companion, he should have dibs, but have no intention of forcing a companion into such a role.--Perikles 18:01, 5 March 2007 (UTC) Bedo asks whether Geoffrey has been approached on the matter, and makes it clear he will support it if Geoffrey is willing to take the post. :He has and he is. ::Ayes; Mnemosyne, Longinus, (Bedo), Phaedrus ::Nays; ::Approved/denied *Longinus proposes to use Bartleby to write a Tractatus next season for his covenant service 1222. Tractatus subject could be Magic Theory, Creo, Rego or Terram, (proposed MT). :Ayes; Longinus, Mnemosyne, Ambrosius, Bedo, Phaedrus :Nays; ::Approved/denied Providing Marcus acts as usual, etc... *Marcus proposes that his work of last winter and spring, including his travels and work on establishing the mundane lines of supply and his work on the school be considered his season of work for 1221. ::Ayes; Ambrosius, Longinus ::Nays; Mnemosyne A season should be a full season, protest vote for the record, Bedo on the grounds that all have worked to establish the covenant during that time - if Bedo mentions this is the reason Longinus will point out that this is not true, all other Magi spent both seasons working on or in their labs, save Longinus, who worked in the library. If Bedo doesn't say this out loud, then tough luck Marcus.. :Abstain; Marcus recuses himself. Longinus asks Marcus to reconsider his recusation so as not to penalise himself for being princeps. Marcus appreciates the gesture, but does not wish to abuse his position, like Caesar's wife, the Princeps must be above reproach. However, if I understand all the discussion, Phaerus' vote will decide the issue. ::approved/'Denied' *Since his previous proposal failed, Marcus then asks if a season spent writing a tractatus would be acceptable, and offers Rego, Corpus or Magic Theory. : Note: The above vote only fails if Phaedrus either does not vote, or votes against the motion. If Phaedrus votes in favour of the above motion, this one is not really relevent... Of course, Sam is away right now and we're not sure when he's back. --Perikles 17:14, 6 March 2007 (UTC) ::I don't think that's true. A passing vote is 4. If Phaedrus votes in favor, that's only three, which fails ... unless ... am I misinterpreting the portion of the Charter that talks about abstentions. Since I am effectively abstaining, does that mean that a passing vote is now 3, since out of 5 votes 3 is a simple majority? JBforMarcus 17:22, 6 March 2007 (UTC) :::The motion needs more than half of the presented votes as a yay (or aye). Abstaining votes do not count. Thus we currently have 2 of 4 for, and 2 of 4 against, with one abstination. If the abstination was counted toward the total needed to secure an aye vote, it would effectively be a nay vote. Presumably this is not what you want, otherwise you wouldn't have proposed it. However, people who propose votes usually vote for them. That's up to you though. ::Ayes; Mnemosyne, Ambrosius, Longinus (subject to the above), Phaedrus (if the question comes up...)), Bedo ::Nays; ::::Approved/denied *He then asks whether a season spent teaching at the Schola Strettonis would be considered Covenant service. ::Ayes; Longinus depending on the subject being taught and the necessity of a Magus teaching it ::Nays; Ambrosius When we have a full staff of teachers, and there is a choice but to teach, then I would be in favor of this, but until we can staff the school properly, I feel it falls on all members to provide teaching as necessary - the problem is that the level of benefit *for the covenant itself* is not on par with other options, so Ambrosius would vote against this, though he has an open mind and would be willing to listen to discussion.--Tim 17:45, 6 March 2007 (UTC)Phaedrus Unless there is something that is very important (for the Covenant) that a Magus teaches it is wastefull to use a magus for it. Bedo ::::Approved/denied Winter Solstice Council of 1222 Vis distribution - the tally of Vis from the year 1221 is: *Creo 3 - Discovered by Ambrosius, who gets a bounty of 2 pawns. *Muto 2 - Mnemnosyne gets a bounty of 1 pawn. *Rego 4 - Marcus may claim two of these as discoverer this year only. *Rego 3 - Bartleby mentioned this to Longinus who is entitled to two pawns. Bartleby gains no bonus since he is not a "member," but gets a vote of thanks. *Animal 2 - source discovered prior to charter, so no "bounty." *Corpus 6 - Bedo claims 3 pawns bounty. *Vim 2 - predated the Charter, so no "bounty." Thus for this year, we have after the bounties are paid a total of: 12 Vis. The split is six to covenant and six to distribute. Clearly, the covenant needs to be able to cast the Aegis of the hearth, requiring six pawns of Rego and/or Vim vis. However, the stock available has only three Rego and two Vim available. Marcus offers to exchange one of his "bounty" pawns of Rego for a pawn of Corpus, allowing the Covenant distribution to be four Rego and two Vim - enough to power the Aegis. He notes, that this will not be an issue in future years since the bounty will not be due. Thus the budget proposal is (unless I've made mistakes in my assumptions above): *less one Corpus and gain one Rego in trade with Marcus *4 Rego and 2 Vim for the Covenant *1 Creo, 1 Muto, 2 Animal and 2 Corpus for distribution Bedo remarks that this is a generous offer by Marcus, for which Marcus should be thanked, given the normal rates of exchange for vis tenta - vis associated with a technique when compared with vis forma - vis associated with an art. ::Ayes; Marcus, Mnemosyne, Longinus, Bedo ::Nays; ::::Approved/denied Vis Distribution - Part II Magi choose vis. Princeps gets first pick. Clashes resolved by seniority. * Marcus selects another Corpus pawn. * * * * * Longinus, Corpus